How can the construction industry deal with the rising demands?

How can the construction industry deal with the rising demands?

The world population is moving from the rural areas to the urban centers for a variety of reasons like scarcity of jobs, better infrastructure and quality of life etc. According to a study by the United Nations it is predicted that close to 7 billion people will live in urban areas by 2050, which is more than 2/3 of the total world population. With the rise in the number of occupants the cities must invest in better infrastructure in order to accommodate them. The construction industry will have to significantly increase their pace if they hope to keep up with the rising demands of new bridges, roads, offices, schools, hospitals, homes etc. that is sure to come with urbanization.

After a turbulent year of adjusting market forecasts and changing norms and regulations the construction industry has perhaps embraced the technological revolution. COVID-19 has changed how the construction industry works from designing to scheduling to onsite construction. These changing trends and movements might end up making the construction sector more competitive and better equipped to deal with these ever-increasing demands.

Building Information Modeling for enhanced construction productivity

The very first thing that is essential for the construction of any building or a structure is to have a plan. Today, that plan is often created with the help of BIM. Building Information Modeling is an intelligent 3D model based process which provides the construction industry professionals all the tools to plan, design, construct and even manage the buildings effectively throughout its lifecycle. There are a host of reasons why BIM Services can augment the construction productivity and quality. Firstly, its enhanced project collaboration capabilities allows for multiple people to work in the same BIM model at the same time even if they are located in a different geographical location. This reduces the errors that would arise out of miscommunication and potentially impact the timeline. Moreover, by allowing multiple people to work on the same project concurrently it drastically increases the project speed. It can also detect any clashes in the preconstruction stage which could have created rework and loss of time, resources and money.

With the global AEC industry looking for more efficient and smarter ways to design and build in order to not just meet the rising demands but also to create better, greener and more resilient structure, BIM is the perfect solution. Finally, its scope is not just limited to planning but the intelligent 3D model also provides data that would help during onsite construction and facility management.

Modular and Prefab Construction:

Another area of construction which is slowly gaining traction is Modular and Prefab construction. Prefabrication is the process of constructing buildings or building components in a climate-controlled factory location and then it is assembled onsite. In the residential sector the value of prefabrication is expected to almost reach by $110 Billion by 2025. The main reason why it is becoming so popular is that it provides a solution of lack of skilled labour while increasing speed, sustainability and quality of building. Prefabrication increases speed by allowing groundworks to take place onsite simultaneously while multiple building components and parts are constructed offsite. It increases speed due to elimination of onsite weather factors and lack of scheduling delays. It also reduces wastes, augments safety and provides better financial savings. Prefabrication can be used with BIM in order to ensure precision and accuracy. For instance, MEP BIM Services ensures that MEP components that are constructed offsite will actually fit onsite.

Modern Technology: A possible solution for new age construction problem

The construction industry will not just be facing one issue of rising demand but will have to deal with a variety of other problems like rising material costs due to scarcity of traditional construction materials. This would increase the importance of ensuring accuracy in planning stage to avoid waste of resources onsite. 3D printing is being tested out at many construction sites today and has the potential to change how materials are sourced and used. Moreover, innovative new materials might also provide possible solutions like self-healing concrete, 3D graphene, light generating concrete etc. But the research regarding these materials is very much in the infancy stage and only the future will determine how these materials will be used in the future.

The other challenge is going to be the lack of skilled labour. There are variety of ways in which technology is gearing up to help bridge the gap between demand and availability of laborers. Drones and mobile access can be used for surveillance while robots can used for to carry out automatic tasks. This can go a long way in increasing safety, improving workflows and getting the jobs done faster and much better.

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